One of the good things about camping is not waking up with an alarm. I still usually get up pretty early and have actually made it up around sunrise to go take pictures. I get to my location right after the sun is up. This past trip I did actually set an alarm and got up and to the location before sunrise. These pictures are my reward. Light is so different in the morning hours, the time that photographers call the golden hour. 1 John 1:5 says,"This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him we have no darkness."As a photographer I am learning the characteristics of light and that has made this verse mean so much more to me. Light changes the color of things - like God changes us. Light has direction. God will direct our paths - and lead us to beautiful places like the lake at sunrise. Below are some more pictures I took at sunrise that morning.

We just got back from a 10 day camping trip to Fall Creek Falls and Rock Island State Parks. We had visited Rock Island before but had not camped there. This year we decided we would try staying there for a few days and really exploring the park by hiking some of the trails. On our anniversary morning we decided we would take what the ranger said she thought was one of the prettiest trails in the park. We got an early start but didn't get very far on the trail. We got to Little Falls which was overflowing a little and flooded the trail. We are not very good at rock hopping and didn't have on boots so we regretfully turned around and headed back to the trail head. But what we saw going in this direction was amazing. There were hundreds of spider webs that with the morning light were like shinning iridescent orbs. They had to have been on the trail when we started but we didn't see them until we had to turn back. We were disappointed that we couldn't go on the trail but by going back we saw unexpected beauty. We didn't go the way we wanted but God gave us a better way, just as he tells us in Isaiah 55: 8-9.For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Sunday morning we sang this wonderful anthem, "Sometimes I Hear God's Music" by Paul Williams and Joseph Martin. We have sung it several times, but this time it was special. The words spoke to me in a different way. This time it reminded me of all the times that Jesus has spoken to me through my photography. The words are beautiful so I will put them here with some images that I was reminded of while reading the words, (The space picture is from David). Here is a link to a youtube video of another choir singing it since I don't have a copy of our choir singing the song. http://youtu.be/i5ybtWf2LU4

Sometimes I hear God's music like none I've heard beforeThe music of the gentle brook, the ocean's mighty roar.

The singing of the nightingale, the thunder's mighty roar.

The silence of the starry night, and I must add my voice.

His music fills my heart with peace; it floods my soul with joy.

His music makes my spirit sing and every note employ.The music of God's love for me He sent his Son to sing. The music of eternity throughout the heavens rings.

Sometimes I hear God's music like none I've heard before.The music of the gentle brook, the ocean's mighty roar.O music of His sacrifice, of the death that Jesus chose.O the music of forever; Jesus Christ arose!All creation sing together of a love that faileth never,The music of forever. Praise God forever.

Author

I am a daughter, a wife, a mother and now a grandmother. I am wonderfully loved first by Jesus Christ then by two wonderful parents, three sisters and their families, a special husband, two extraordinary children and a wonderful son in law and daughter in law, two new grandsons, and dear Christian friends. I seek now to serve Christ in new ways in my retirement!